Downhole fluids are used for a variety of different downhole operations including for example drilling, lubrication, remediation and completion operations. These fluids include both aqueous-based fluids in which solid particles are suspended in a continuous phase of water or brine, and non-aqueous based fluids. Oil can also be emulsified in the aqueous-based fluid in which water remains as the continuous phase.
For operations such as drilling, and for other applications such as wellbore imaging, it is useful to manage heat generated by the operations (e.g., by wellbore drilling) or ambient heat found in downhole conditions encountered by the downhole elements (drill bits, wellbore imaging tools such as logging while drilling (LWD) and monitoring while drilling (MWD) tools, etc.). Decreasing the thermal load on such tools provides improvements in efficiency and life-cycle of this equipment.
It is therefore desirable to further improve heat transfer and effect more efficient cooling of downhole elements to achieve enhanced efficiency and longevity in downhole elements for drilling, imaging, and equipment for other downhole operations.